Offally good tucker.

I’m just not sure that chicken feet have good social comment, ant. A heart really says something, y’know?

@Legends – if you aren’t there for the all you can eat menu, then its not worth the visit.

I believe I have done a review on legends already

@Schlemmertopfh – I have an ikea version, I must say I’m not that impressed. Stop squirrelling around and go the Le Creuset at the Myer christmas sales. Something like 70% off (which brings it down to about $250 a pot) but you’ll be back to start your set the next year. I cannot begin to harp on about how my life has changed since I purchased my first Le Crueset.

Sending some chicken feet would be cheaper on postage, and you get lots of chicken feet in the tray pack, so you’d have plenty to mail.

pickled eggs – now that is a delicacy.

ox hearts can be stuffed with rice and other ingredients. also good for hate mail or a snack whilst stalking….

Hate mailing ox hearts is a damn fine idea! Noone we know, I hope….

; )

legends in manuka has a offal section on their menu. from memory there is black pudding and about 4 or 5 other things on there but i can’t recall what else. im sure you could give them a ring and find out.

Overheard – your bargepole comments made me laugh on a dull work day – cheers.

We used to do brains when I was a chef – poached in milk then cooled, crumbed and deep fried.

Served with lemon – I tried them once because I had to know what I was selling, but never again..

Its just a vile warme paste that tastes like nothing in particular – hence the lemon juice.

Save teh offal for pesants (sp?) and those who are deluded into thinking its food.

May go to mother natures though – I need another ox heart to hate mail someone.

You know that the more we resist the offal, the more likely we are to cross over.

And jokes like that will see you staying here!

Don’t be offal, Granny. It wasn’t a birdie; it was an insect!

Hi Overheard,

A little birdie told me you’d been banished to this thread!

*tee hee*

The sound you are now hearing is my tofu and fetta burger becoming a pizza on my kitchen table.

Blech!

(Hmmm. Might have put myself in a conundrum with the tofu and fetta reference. For the record, I’m an omnivore, but old habits die hard.)

I know this topic was about being on the scrounge for cooked offal, but since few places seem to be cooking it, in the interests of research I checked out the disgusting bit of the meat section at Mother Natures, Qbn. Tehy had quite a foul range, including assorted hearts and livers and tongues in various sizes, chicken feet, Tripes, kidneys, but no pig feet. I have seen them there previously though.

You do know that bad yolks stink?

*hehe*

When I said ‘Pass the eggs’, I was making a bit of a bad yolk.

And yes, we had chickens all my childhood years and then I owned more when in the marital home. Eggbound chooks: it ain’t pretty. I didn’t actually get the scalpel out to do any dissecting, but…… ick.

Have you ever dissected an eggbound chicken? Short story: don’t.

I never used to touch offal with a ten foot barge pole. (Why we kept a ten foot barge pole in our kitchen I’ll never know.) It was a favourite on the school dinner menu (liver, not ten foot barge poles) when I spent a year at school in England. We used to look through the school canteen window, and if liver and onions was on the menu we’d bunk off and invest our 30p on sweets. (This would be 30 years ago next year, so 30p bought a shipload of sweeties.)

But when I was married, my first generation Australian wife introduced me to all manner of European delights and we used to eat a concoction that I’ll call ‘liver and onions’ for shorthand, and I quite enjoyed it. That was before spending eight years vego, and since coming back to carnivore land, I’ve been put off liver and kidneys for life when someone explained it to me thusly: ‘These are FILTERS. You’re eating something an animal uses as a filter!’

I don’t know enough to know whether this is true or not, but ever since then, when I’ve heard of someone eating liver or kidneys, I immediately get a visual image of that doover in the lawnmower that you have to periodically knock the grass and crap out of to stop it seizing up.

Disgusting. Pass the eggs…

I remember lookign at the menu for that restaurant that re-opened on Red Hill (on Red I think it’s called) and being disgusted that the menu was mostly fish and offal.

(goes off an has a look) http://www.onred.com.au/menu.html
Well, the offal content has gone down, but the fish content has taken over.

They have rabbit, which is offal on legs…

I don’t have too much trouble sourcing the ingredients, and am a more than adequete cook, but I was more hoping to get ideas of restaurants that have offal on the menu.

sepi said :

I’ve seen pig trotters at Hackett shops – i think – I don’t look too closely.

You see them all over the place, and those revolting Chicken Feet too. Im pretty sure Mother Natures in Qbn has a “good” (bad) range of yucky bits, including pig feet. I imagine proper butchers are teh place to go for foul bits, or those meat shops. I know the meat shop in Qbn (high country) takes orders for anything you want. I order the side of veal from time to time, it’s cheap as chips, no fat, and lots of useful bits.

Why did I not think to marry a chef from La Scala?

: )

Will do!

bigfeet said :

I’ve had one of those schlemmertopf for about 15 years now and love it.

Everytime I bring it out to serve out of a dinner party people are always impressed and ask me about it.

try liver in the schlemmertopf. awesome if you add garlic, cumin, ginger and a bit of fresh basil.

I’ve had one of those schlemmertopf for about 15 years now and love it.

Everytime I bring it out to serve out of a dinner party people are always impressed and ask me about it.

Granny said :

Thanks! Is that Mr or Mrs Peter?

mr. I do most of the cooking in the house – helps that I used to work in a kitchen for la scala. (many, many years ago)

my favorite cookware is a schlemmertopf (http://www.fantes.com/schlemmertopf.html) pot and a roasting dish from avanti.

Thanks! Is that Mr or Mrs Peter?

Granny said :

How much kidney and liver do you use, and can you just use liver?

2 kidneys & 1 liver (beef)is best for a decent cut – adjust based on size of meat. it forms a medium thickness crust – trapping the flavour in.

you can just use liver, but if doing so, I add garlic in to flavour it up a bit.

I’ve seen pig trotters at Hackett shops – i think – I don’t look too closely.

Oh, the Falun Gong are always complaining …. A few human rights violations, a few Asian pates and off they go!

: )

Falun Gong are always complaining that the Chinese government harvests their organs…now I know why!!

shiny flu said :

Have you tried Chinese Offals?

They wont be on the menu (at least the English one) but you can ask at Ruby’s or Jimmy’s in Dickson for them.

Kidney, tongue, intestine, tripe… it’s all there and tastes great.

I personally draw the line at eating the Chinese, but to each their own.

*shrug*

I did wonder about Asian cuisine. I know that they are very big on using every part of the animal. Next time I am down in Dixon I will check out what is on offer.

I did have Pigs Intestine soup in Malaysia and whilst the flavour was fine, it was a little rubbery in texture.

That Asian butcher at teh Belco Markets always seems to have a good supply of intestine, tripe, liver and kidney. I might look for some Asian recipes online.

Have you tried Chinese Offals?

They wont be on the menu (at least the English one) but you can ask at Ruby’s or Jimmy’s in Dickson for them.

Kidney, tongue, intestine, tripe… it’s all there and tastes great.

How much kidney and liver do you use, and can you just use liver?

Thanks!

bigfeet said :

peterh said :

pureed kidney and liver on roast beef as a crust.

mmmmm!

I like the sound of that…do you just puree them up, or do you add something..maybe a bit of olive oil and salt at least? And do you coat the roast at the start, or sometime through the cooking process?

olive oil – 1tbsp, Worcestershire sauce 1tsp, put into processor, blend together. coat the roast, allow to partially set. I usually put 2 sprigs of rosemary along the length of the meat. bung in oven, cook as if std roast. no need to turn it, the crust retains moisture within roast. carve as normal, the crust may break off when carving, can use as a chip, or base to place roast carving meat on.

Careful…that could be construed as giving instructions in a terrorist act!!

That puree of livers sounds like an excellent thing to grow Ebola virus on.

peterh said :

pureed kidney and liver on roast beef as a crust.

mmmmm!

I like the sound of that…do you just puree them up, or do you add something..maybe a bit of olive oil and salt at least? And do you coat the roast at the start, or sometime through the cooking process?

I love pate, especially in Beef Wellington.

Oh god… I feel ill. I used to love pate`, until I bought some chicken livers in a bag, to make my own. Fried them up, and made a very good pate (full of cream and brandy and herbs and stuff ) but the smell of teh livers frying did it for me, I never had pate` again.

while lamb marking – lamb’s tails and mountain oysters on the fire. blood cup from freshly killed venison – supposed to give you speed of a deer. couldn’t run very fast, we shot it.

haggis and tripe. perfect for strength before a hockey match.

lamb’s brains in batter, pureed kidney and liver on roast beef as a crust.

mmmmm!

Mmmm LIVER!!!

I have to draw the line at brains though, I am not a zombie (yet) and to quote Bill Cosby ‘I aint eating nothing anything else has been thinking with’.

Yes, but wee is very sterile I think. *grin*

We used to have Devilled Kidneys for breakfast. Those things are wee filters! And they smell like sheep. Ugh.

My mum used to do the most delicious tripe with white sauce and onions, and a fantastic home-made ‘potted meat’. Then one day my day went and told me what they were. I have never eaten them since. *sigh* I don’t think she would even remember how to make them anymore.

Mum used to do a great crumbed lambs brain. Tender and very tasty. I have never managed to achieve the same results. I do love a good fry up of kidneys or liver and bacon for breakfast although mrs neanderthalsis doesn’t appreciate the smell of kidneys frying at 8am on a sunday morning. I could never abide tripe through.

As an offal lover, I’d be keen to hear the best places out and about to get an offally good feed.

Having to eat kidneys and liver as a kid, I have pretty much had an aversion to it ever since.

And I still didn’t turn out to be an All Black like Dad said I would if I ate all the liver and kidney on my plate!!!!!

Mael, I wanted to contribute 🙂

This is a seriously disgusting thread.

And I saw “Lamb’s Fry” (LIVER! IT’S BLOODY WELL LIVER!) on the menu at the Durham Arms pub in Kingston on the weekend.

my old man was an old-school master butcher, did a great brawn in a big copper vat. i’ve never had the like of it since he retired, damn him! ; ) and has anyone else had the dang woolies deli counter roll up their brawn – i have to specifically ask them to pack it flat so it won’t break up. has anyone found a decent brawn in canberra?

pigs trotters, too. anywhere serves these wondrous things? or at elast a butcher who’ll bone them for you?

Bite To Eat in Chifley had black pudding on the menu last time i went, admittedly that was a while ago, couldn’t tell you if it is good or not though 😉

Good luck on your offal quest

But when you throw up, do you really need to hit the post button ?

There are a number of other threads on this site, if you don’t like particular themes it is more than appropriate to avoid the ones you find distasteful.

dammit, i just threw up all over my keyboard. that’s why no capital letters in this post. i’m not touching that shift key again.

The Green Herring used to do great offal, too. Not sure if they still do. Tom from Sage is now out at Grazing – should imagine he still whips it up on occasion.

Thanks Mael, I quite often source my own ingredients and am a regular shopper at Belco Markets. But it’s also nice to have someone else cook and clean up. I was hoping there would be a few restaurants around town that did some interesting ways.

Granny, Loved the link, and will be contacting that restaurant next time I am in Sydney. That’s the sort of thing I was looking for…how nice does that scallops on black pudding sound? And the lamb’s testicles? I have only ever had them grilled on an open fire, about ten minutes after they were removed from the lambs…, a bit of salt and a squeeze of lemon juice….mmmmmm making my mouth water just thinking about it.

You can sometimes get pressed ox tongue at the smaller deli at the Fyshwick markets. They source it from a butcher somewhere because the larger commercial smallgoods producer who used to make it (can’t remember which one it was – KR?) stopped. So it comes in a squarish block rather than the big oval slices of my childhood, and is slightly less salty, but it’s still pretty good. Try early in the week because they often sell out. Delicious!

Gunther and Christine Outsider Cafe and Gallery at Captain’s Flat does a fantastic chicken liver breakfast. Last time I was out there they were also working on their own brawn. Open Friday-Sunday.

Unfortunately bigfoot the reason why you haven’t found a decent venue is because you won’t in Canberra.

Your hub for ingredients should involve a trip to Belconnen Markets, particularly the delicatessens, and the game butchery. Poachers Pantry might have some odds and ends, but as I’ve never felt the need to go out there I can’t vouch for them.

You should enjoy this link, young bigfoot!

The local butcher sells bags of this sort of stuff for a couple of dollars, that’s what my dog eats!

and slightly OT: WMC, Sage seems to have changed hands sometime in the last year or so. I wasn’t so impressed with it recently, used to go there often but didn’t for a while.

I was dry retching just reading your post ! Hope you find somewhere and don’t be offended if I don’t take you up on your dinner invitation.

Mmmmm. Sweetbreads……

MArinettis used to do sweetbreads sometimes.

And the Austrian Club used to do brains occasionally.

I’m sure the top of red hill restaurant (forget it’s new name) does lots of game and offal.

the deli closest to the outside dance floor thing at belco markets has black puddings from esli’s butchery (swiss) in enfield, sydney and are simply divine. the deli at city markets also stocks a dandy one… mmmmm, black puddin’ sooooooo black, even’t white bits etc…

good thread. info, please!

Hrm. Sage used to do decent brains, but not anymore it seems.